Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge Book 2)

Raven awoke thrashing in the middle of the night. Cold and alone. The way she’d been the last week.

She felt abandoned. A new fear rising up to take her over. One that felt almost like a broken heart, though she’d never been close enough to anyone to understand what that was like.

Throwing off the covers, she heaved for breath as she tried to calm the dark storm that bellowed inside her. A tacky awareness that slithered through her veins, more toxic than the bad dream.

She squeezed her eyes closed, praying for sleep, but none would come.

She stilled when she heard the soft thud of footsteps outside her door.

Come to me, she silently begged. She still couldn’t understand what had happened over the last week.

All except for the call Raven had gotten from Haddie.

Otto had been distant since.

Barely looking at her in the day and completely ignoring her at night.

Those footsteps changed course, backing away, before she heard the soft click of a door latch before it quietly snapped shut across the hall.

Sorrow threatened to tie her to the bed, to keep her shackled. But she couldn’t do that anymore. She didn’t want to be small and ashamed. She didn’t want to hide or conceal.

For once—for the first time in her life—she wanted to be seen.

She rose from the bed and crept across the floor. Her heart fluttered madly in her chest when she set her hand on the knob. Inhaling a steadying breath, she searched inside herself for fortitude.

For courage.

For the bravery and strength that he’d always affirmed that she had.

For everything he’d been instilling in her for all these years.

She opened the door, and her attention swept from one side of the hall to the other to make sure it was clear, then she tiptoed to the door directly across from hers.

She didn’t hesitate or knock.

She pushed it open the same way as Otto had always done hers.

He was lounged on his bed, and he lurched upright. Only wearing jeans and his boots.

Thickness filled her throat and butterflies scattered in her belly as she took in the sight of him.

So viciously beautiful it made her feel weak.

Designs inscribed across his flesh, flexing and contracting over the shock of muscles that bulged beneath.

Magnificent.

It was all she could think.

This man who she trusted more than anyone else.

“Raven.” It gusted out of him on a low roll of surprise.

Her brow pinched as she squeezed the door handle, though she lifted her chin, refusing to back down. “Where have you been?”

He scraped a hand over the top of his head, diverting his gaze to the floor. “Busy.”

Stepping forward, she let the door swing shut behind her. “Too busy for me?”

“Guess so.” He kept his head down when he said it.

A shockwave of pain reverberated the air. She wasn’t sure which of them it originated from because it felt like they both were washed in it. Dragged down to the dark abyss of an endless sea.

“You should go back to bed, Raven,” he said, still not fully looking at her.

“Why?”

“Because you shouldn’t be in here.”

She choked out a sound of disbelief. “But it’s fine for you to come to my room whenever it’s convenient for you?”

He flew to his feet, so tall and imposing she sucked in a shattered breath.

Anguish contorted his face. “No,” he hissed quietly, the sound a mere reverberation. “It’s not okay for me to come to your room, Raven. Think you know that.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because it’s not my place.”

Hollow laughter curled up her throat, and she blinked as she stared at him. Trying to understand why he was doing this. What would have changed. “It is your place, Otto. It is your place because you’re the only one who’s ever made me feel safe. The only one who gives me peace. The only one I want coming into my room.”

His head barely shook. “No.”

She barreled right through the resistance. “Otto, I want you⁠—”

“No.” It whipped off his tongue, a sharp, bitter blade.

It pierced her.

An arrow driven right through.

Then he sighed and stepped forward, and he pulled her into his arms. He was hot. Burning up. He ran his fingers through her hair as he pressed her cheek to his chest. “Please don’t say it, Raven. Please don’t say it. Because I love you. I do. So fuckin’ much.”

The air held, time slipping away between them, his breath shaky before he cast the final blow. “But not like that. Not the way that you’re thinking. I think you got confused along the way. Turned this into something it’s not.”

Confused?

She choked around the statement. She wasn’t confused. She knew. She knew exactly what glowed inside her.

“Otto…” She blinked against the moisture that gathered in her eyes, and he hauled her closer, his lips murmuring at the crown of her head. “You’re amazing, Raven. Beautiful and strong and courageous. Hold onto that. Keep it close. And I know you’re going to find everything in this world you want. Everything you deserve.”

It’s you. It’s you.

But she couldn’t say it.

The rejection he’d cast splintered through her like a thousand fiery darts.

Then he completely finished off. A fatal blow that speared through her heart. “And I’ll be right here, at your side, cheering my baby sister on every step of the way.”

Baby sister.

Baby sister.

Numbly, she backed away, doing her best to staunch the tears that brimmed in her eyes as she turned and fled.

She didn’t let them fall until she fell face down on top of her bed.

“Haddie, please don’t give into him.” Raven nearly begged it where she sat in the front passenger-seat of Haddie’s car.

Haddie cut her a glance as they traveled beneath the streetlamps that glinted above them as they headed toward the house party where Gideon was waiting for her.

“He said he was sorry. Really sorry.”

Worry churned in Raven’s guts, and she blinked out the windshield at the glittering clubs and bars they passed.

“And it’s Hollywood. Like, seriously, this is going to be so much fun.” Haddie reached out and squeezed Raven’s knee.

Raven couldn’t find any excitement. There was only dread. Something deep and dark that lurked in the recesses of her mind.

An omen that crawled over the dense fog that hung from the heavens and blotted out the stars.

City lights shined against it, creating a silvered canopy that covered them whole.

Something about it felt like a prison. A trap.

“He hurt you, Haddie,” Raven whispered.

A shiver rolled through her best friend before she straightened in her seat. “He won’t do it again. He promised.” There was almost an apology on Haddie’s face when she peeked at her. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

Disquiet pulsed through Raven. There was no way she wasn’t going. Going to a party in Hollywood was probably the last thing she wanted to do.

The faint vestiges of courage she’d been wearing had been demolished by the rejection Otto had inflicted the previous night. Her heart tattered. Her edges frayed.

But this was her best friend.

Her best friend who wouldn’t listen to her no matter how much she begged her.

Haddie made a right onto a neighborhood street. It was darker here, the small houses a bit dilapidated and run-down. It wasn’t like any of the parties she attended with Haddie were in upscale neighborhoods, but something about this felt all wrong.

Off.

Haddie pulled to a stop in front of a single-story house that matched the address. The white paint was peeling, the yard was overgrown, and boards covered the windows.

Only a single pickup truck was parked in front of them.

Anxiety billowed, a queasy feeling that clawed up her throat. “I don’t think this is a good idea. Where is everyone?”

“Probably parking on another street so the cops don’t get called.” Haddie hesitated before she rushed, “I know you’re all up in arms about this, Raven, and I get it, but I chose to forgive him, so I’m going in with or without you.”

Haddie snatched her small purse from the middle console and stepped from the car.

Warily, Raven followed, her throat thick as she trailed her best friend up the crumbling sidewalk that had weeds growing through the cracks.

The front door swung open before they even got to it, and Gideon grinned as he leaned an arm up high on the jamb. “Ah, our guests of honor.”

A flirty giggle rolled out of Haddie. “Were you missing me?”

“Oh, yeah,” Gideon drew out.

“I missed you, too,” she said, pecking a kiss to his lips.

He stood aside to give her room to slip by, then he widened the door for Raven who hesitated ten steps back.

“No need to be shy,” he drawled.

Raven looked around, swallowing around the lump in her throat, before she forced herself to move inside.

Gideon closed the door behind her.

But there was no music.

No revelers.

No party.

Just the malicious stares of the group of men who stood waiting for them.

Ice slicked down Raven’s spine when she heard the lock clicking into place.

And in the flash of a second, she was back in that small room. Her father lurking above, that maniacal grin on his face. His sadistic hunger to inflict pain written all over his smile.

Except her vision was filled with seven faces then.

All Owls who watched them with sadistic, salacious hate.

Panic drove through Raven, and she whirled around to run back to the door. Her hand curled around the doorknob at the same second as Dusty snatched her wrist. She cried out when he wrung it back. “Little bitch…nothing but a cock tease. Been waitin’ for this for a long, long time. Now it’s come due.”

Haddie stumbled back a step, her gaze flitting over the faces of the men before it landed on Gideon. “What’s going on?” She tried to demand it, but it trembled.

Gideon cracked a grin. The same kind of grin Raven’s father used to wear. He stepped forward, angling his head. “Otto and his whole crew have it comin’. And I’m gonna enjoy getting that payback through you.”

Fear weighed down on her body where she hid under her covers. So heavy. Shaking and shaking as she listened to the door creak open. “No, Daddy, no.” But she had no strength, and there was nothing she could do but succumb to her own screams.

Raven fought against it, the terror that wanted to consume, and she lifted her foot and rammed the sharp point of her heel into the top of Dusty’s boot. He howled and she jerked free of his hold.

Raven bolted forward, grabbed Haddie’s hand, and shouted, “Run!”

She hauled Haddie the only direction they weren’t surrounded by the Owls, running through the cutout that led into the kitchen. Raven prayed the back door was unlocked. It was their only chance.

Only they didn’t make it halfway there before a hand fisted in her hair and ripped her back. She screamed at the pain that tore across her scalp, then a sob ripped from her lungs when she was thrown to the ground, her hip taking the brunt force of the impact.

Dusty loomed over her, a malignant smirk on his face as he came to straddle her.

She cried out, kicking and flailing her arms.

The back of his hand cracked across the side of her face. Blood filled her mouth, acrid and foul, and she spit it in his face.

“You fuckin’ bitch. You’re gonna regret that.”

He started to rip at her clothes, and she struggled against him when he yanked at the button of her jeans.

She fought and fought. Kicking her legs and bucking up.

He grabbed her by both wrists and pinned them to the floor.

He leaned in close and licked her cheek, and Raven closed her eyes like it could keep her from the horror of it all. Remove her.

But it didn’t block anything. Not the stench of Dusty’s presence or the bite of his nails or the weight of his body.

Not the agony that was coming from Haddie a few feet away.

Wail after wail.

Raven managed to get one of her hands free and she scratched her nails down Dusty’s cheek. Tiny lines of flesh opened. They bloomed red with the blood she’d drawn.

He struck her again.

And then…

Hope blossomed through the terror.

Because she heard it above Haddie’s sobs and the shout of the men.

Motorcycle engines roared in the distance, growing louder with each second.

Otto. River. Oh God, they were coming. They would save them.

“Fuck. They’re comin’. Everyone get the fuck out and get clear,” one of the men shouted from the living room.

“Finish it,” Gideon growled. “They’re finally gonna feel our pain.”

Dusty spat a curse, and she almost breathed out in relief when he edged back, until she saw the flash of metal when he pulled something from the back of his jeans.

A knife.

Horror raced through her when he came forward, going for her throat, and she flipped around just in time to deflect it, trying to push up from the floor to get away.

“You bitch.”

She clawed at the slick tile.

Desperate.

Praying for one more second.

For River and Otto to bust through the door.

Only a scream tore from her when that relief didn’t come, but instead, a hot blade was thrust into her side.